Interview with Tom Brendt

about Windsurf and Clinics

When did you start coaching in Windsurfclinics ?

Already in the mid nineties I worked as Instructor during Windsurf Trips to Lago di Como and Lago di Garda in Italy. This was the first time I tought in kind
of Windsurf Camps, but the real start was in the year 2000, when a good friend of mine, who runs a nice Windsurfshop in northern Germany asked me what I think about doing a Windsurf Camp in the
North East of Germany at the Baltic Sea. To me that sounded great and indeed it was a big success and so I started to promote some more Camps, this time in Tarifa / Spain. At this time I was also
already working for the Happy Surfpool Centers, what didn´t leave me too much time for more Events, until I got asked in 2002 to be Coach of the Trainer Dream Team of the Young Guns Camps
together with Josh Stone, Steve Chismar, Mike Slijk, Chris Pressler …. After three more Young Guns Camps I started with my own Freestylecamp Tour.What was so Special about a Windsurf Clinic, that you left a save Job as Windsurf Instructor and Center Manager behind ?The Job as Instructor, which I really liked, after I while was not what I really wanted to do in Windsurfing. In all my former sports I´ve been pretty
ambitious and so also as Coach I wasn´t really satisfied by instructing people who came to the Beach and many times only wanted to try and not really to learn Windsurfing. With the Clinics it is
very different. The people who come to my Clinics come with a lot of Motivation to really learn something and so also follow my professional Training methods and so learn much more in a shorter
time.When I read “learn a professional way” I thought that my Windsurflevel is not good enough to participate in of your Events ? When are people ready to
participate ?The right Level always depends on the theme of the Clinic, but usually the only things you should be able to do is using the Harness and you should have tried
possibly already to use the Footstraps, but even if you still have Problems there, you will be able to improve those Steps in our Clinics. The professional way doesn´t mean we want to have semi
Pro´s or Pro´s at our Clinics, we just teach you a professional way with Step by Step learning, Video analisis, Foto Sequences, Simulator Training, the right excercises and their repititions
until the Step works automaticly.How you choose your Destinations and Centers for the WSL Clinics ?We always try to find Destinations which make learning easy and provide great Equipment same as atmosphere at the Beach and also good possibilities to learn at
the Beach, use the Video and Photo analisis, plus the whole journey should be as easy and comfortable as possible and the conditions have to be suitable for the theme we want to
teach.How many Events you do per year and which one you like most ?We started with two or three Events per year, mostly in El Yaque, Venezuela and Tarifa in Spain, but the Tour is growing since a couple of years and now we
plan one Event per month at least and we just got some great new Destinations for Events in 2010 with Lefkada, Lanzarote and Flecheiras. Actually I really like all of the Events, doesn´t matter
if wave in Morocco, Freestyle in El Yaque and Fuerteventura or the Improve your Skills Events at all the other Destinations. For me it´s just important that my clients have the Motivation and a
lot of fun and progress.What is your maximum group size to ensure the progress ?Actually we always try to get a group size of maximum 8 persons per Instructor to ensure the progress and individual learning. Even with ten people it´s
possible to coach a successful way, but it also depends on the Move or theme of the Clinic or group.What do you think is the biggest advantage, if there is any, against a common Windsurf Lesson ?When you are short in time of course it is always good to take a Windsurf Lesson to progress. The biggest advantage is that you learn with other people with
the same Motivation and fun so you can push yourself. It´s kind of a small Competition like who learns faster, or like that guy just learnt the Move so I have to get there as well. But more
important is that with more people and more hours, days of lessons, you´ll hear questions and answers about your move you maybe haven´t thought of, see more excercises on and off the water and of
course a lot of fun in the group.The Clinics are multicultural or in which languages people can be taught ?Yes, the Clinics got very multicultural now, with participants from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, England, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Poland, Israel,
Turkey, Greece and Russia, but it would be hard to teach in all those languages, so we teach in German, English, Spanish and Italian.